Maternal Prenatal Stress and Other Developmental Risk Factors for Adolescent Depression: Spotlight on Sex Differences

Maternal stress during pregnancy has been linked to premorbid abnormalities associated with depression (e.g., difficult temperament, cognitive deficits) in offspring. However, few studies have looked across developmental periods to examine maternal stress during pregnancy and offspring depression during adolescence and whether these associations differ by sex. The current study used data from 1711 mother-offspring dyads (offspring sex: 49.8% male) in a longitudinal birth cohort study. Maternal narratives collected during pregnancy were qualitatively coded for stress-related themes by independent raters. Latent class analysis (LCA) identified distinct subgroups of offspring based on exposure to maternal prenatal stress and other developmental factors from the prenatal, childhood, and adolescent periods that have been associated with depression and/or maternal prenatal stress. LCA identified subgroups that were compared to determine whether and to what extent they differed on adolescent depressive symptoms. LCA revealed a subgroup of “high-risk” individuals, characterized by maternal factors during pregnancy (higher ambivalence/negativity and lower positivity towards the pregnancy, higher levels of hassles, lower maternal education and higher maternal age at birth, higher pre-pregnancy BMI) and offspring developmental factors (decreased cognitive functioning during childhood and adolescence, lower perceived parental support during adolescence, and higher levels of maternal depression during adolescence). High-risk females exhibited elevated conduct symptoms and higher birth order, while high-risk males exhibited decreased internalizing symptoms and lower birth order. Both high-risk males and females reported elevated depressive symptoms during adolescence relative to their “low-risk” counterparts.     

Effects of stress across the lifespan

Stress is a known precipitant for metabolic and neurological diseases, with sensitive periods identified across the developmental continuum from conception to old age. However, the effects of stress may vary depending on the point or points along the developmental trajectory when adversity strikes. Past research has emphasized the consequences of stress on fully developed physiological systems in the brain and periphery, but more recent studies have explored the impact of stress on systems at different stages of maturation, with differential effects being revealed. This review provides an overview of the diverse effects of stress at critical developmental stages and the potential outcomes that may be associated with experiencing environmental adversity during ontogeny.     

The association of perimenopausal mood disorders with other reproductive-related disorders

Data regarding the increased incidence of psychiatric illness during midlife in women are still conflicting. However, there is a growing consensus that certain groups of women may in fact be at higher risk for mood symptoms and psychiatric disorders during the perimenopausal transition. Mood symptoms during the perimenopause may be related to mood disorders during other periods of hormonal fluctuation throughout a woman's reproductive lifecycle. Elucidating these associations may advance the understanding of mood disorders during the perimenopausal transition. The epidemiology and treatment of perimenopausal mood symptoms compared with the epidemiology and treatment of mood disorders during the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and postpartum. Common risk factors associated with mood disorders during these periods of hormonal changes or instability include poor lifestyle habits, a history of hormonally related mood disorders, stress and negative life events, ethnicity, and comorbidity. Reproductive-related mood disorders also are subject to an improvement in symptoms in response to treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. As the morbidity associated with mood disorders during midlife may be quite significant, and as life expectancy continues to increase, recognition, prevention, and treatment of perimenopausal affective illness is becoming increasingly essential.     

Impulsivity Symptoms as Core to the Developmental Externalizing Spectrum

Impulsivity is posited to be a key part of the externalizing spectrum during childhood, but this idea has received minimal empirical attention. The goal of the present investigation was to utilize network analysis to determine whether behavioral impulsivity symptoms are key components of the externalizing network across several developmental periods from preschool into adolescence. Participants were 109 preschoolers (64 % male) ages 3 to 6, 237 children (59 % male) ages 6 to 9, 372 children (59 % male) ages 10 to 13, and 357 adolescents (59 % male) ages 13 to 17 and their parents. Parents completed ratings of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) symptoms on a well-validated rating scale. Network analyses indicated that ADHD and ODD were somewhat differentiated in preschool, becoming united by behavioral impulsivity symptoms during early childhood, and then differentiating into inattention versus externalizing clusters later during childhood and in adolescence. Behavioral impulsivity symptoms were core to the externalizing spectrum across most developmental periods, but core inattentive and ODD symptoms were also identified in line with progressive differentiation. These results suggest the increasing importance of impulsivity symptoms across development, explaining externalizing comorbidity and potentially serving as a viable target for childhood interventions for externalizing problems.     

儿童早期的母亲生活压力对其5岁行为问题的预测效应：链式中介分析

通过对107名幼儿及其母亲历时5年的5次追踪测量, 考察了儿童早期(9~38个月)母亲生活压力对5岁时儿童行为问题的预测效应及其作用机制。结果发现, 在儿童早期, 母亲生活压力具有相对的稳定性, 但引起母亲生活压力的主要生活事件排序有所变化; 儿童早期母亲生活压力对儿童行为问题的作用机制有两种方式：一方面表现为母亲生活压力对儿童5岁时的情绪症状和品行问题的直接效应; 另一方面表现为通过减少母亲积极养育行为进一步影响儿童情绪症状和同伴问题的间接效应; 此外, 儿童早期母亲生活压力还通过积极养育和儿童努力控制的链式中介作用对儿童过度活跃和亲社会行为产生影响。结论:母亲生活压力对儿童行为问题具有预测效应, 这种效应的机制包括母亲生活压力的直接效应以及通过积极养育、努力控制的间接效应。     

Moral Injury: A Mechanism for War-Related Psychological Trauma in Military Family Members

Recent research has provided compelling evidence of mental health problems in military spouses and children, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), related to the war-zone deployments, combat exposures, and post-deployment mental health symptoms experienced by military service members in the family. One obstacle to further research and federal programs targeting the psychological health of military family members has been the lack of a clear, compelling, and testable model to explain how war-zone events can result in psychological trauma in military spouses and children. In this article, we propose a possible mechanism for deployment-related psychological trauma in military spouses and children based on the concept of moral injury, a model that has been developed to better understand how service members and veterans may develop PTSD and other serious mental and behavioral problems in the wake of war-zone events that inflict damage to moral belief systems rather by threatening personal life and safety. After describing means of adapting the moral injury model to family systems, we discuss the clinical implications of moral injury, and describe a model for its psychological treatment.     

Impact of stress on objectively recorded menopausal hot flushes and on flush report bias

The hot flush (or flash) is the most widely reported menopausal symptom. Anecdotal reports suggest that women experience more hot flushes when stressed. Although stress may actually trigger hot flushes, another possibility is that women under stress may be more aware of the physiological changes associated with flushes and, therefore, more likely to report them. The goal of this study was to test these hypotheses by investigating the association between stress and both objective (i.e., physiologically recorded) and subjective hot flushes. Twenty-one postmenopausal women who reported having frequent hot flushes each underwent psychophysiological monitoring during stressful and nonstressful laboratory sessions. Significantly more objective flushes were recorded during the stress session than during the nonstress session. The stress manipulation, however, did not affect subjects' propensity to report flushes. These results suggest that the observed association between reported hot flushes and stress is not due to changes in report bias. The physiological mechanisms through which stress may stimulate hot flushes are discussed.     

应用发展科学 ——一门研究人与社会发展的新兴学科

20世纪以来,社会、经济和地缘政治的变化使得科学与服务以及知识的研发与应用之间的矛盾进一步加剧。顺应社会发展的要求,发展心理学融合诸多相关学科而逐渐形成了一门新兴学科——应用发展科学（Applied Developmental Science）。与传统发展心理学相比,应用发展科学更强调生态化研究、发展性研究、积极干预和发展知识的普及。它力图实现多学科间知识的融合增效以及深入社会的知识研发和应用,从而更好地以问题为中心来解决影响个体发展的社会问题。应用发展科学能够为有关人类发展的科学研究和实践应用提供新的知识经验,同时,它又通过直接参与和影响社会政策的制定与实施来促进社会的积极发展     

Physiological hyperreactivity to stressors in physical child abusers and individuals at risk for being physically abusive

Research on the physiological reactivity of physical child abusers and individuals at risk for being physically abusive is summarized and critiqued. Several theorists have hypothesized that physical child abusers experience physiological hyperreactivity to stressors, particularly stressful child interactions associated with child rearing. The experimental evidence generally supports the physiological hyperreactivity hypothesis, although there are some contradictory and inconsistent results within individual studies and across studies. The research also indicates that the physiological hyperreactivity of physical child abusers and those at risk for being physically abusive occurs during a wide variety of stimulus situations, including aversive child-related stimuli, nonaversive child-related stimuli, aversive nonchild-related stimuli, and during periods when no overt stimulus is present (resting or baseline periods). Recommendations concerning procedural and methodological improvements are made in order to enable future researchers to better address unresolved issues related to the physiological hyperreactivity hypothesis.     

Constructive thinking and coping with laboratory-induced stress.

In a laboratory stress test, poor constructive thinkers produced more negative affective and cognitive responses in all experimental periods and a greater increase in such responses in the stress period than did good constructive thinkers. The groups differed in physiological arousal in the recovery period but not in the stress period. Stressor-instigated negative thoughts and spontaneous negative thoughts produced different patterns of relations with variables measured in the laboratory and with symptoms reported in everyday life. Discriminating patterns of relations were found between measures of cognition and affect in the laboratory and self-reported emotional, physical, and behavioral symptoms in everyday life. The results help explain the relation between maladaptive automatic thinking, on the one hand, and elevated physiological arousal and emotional, physical, and behavioral symptoms, on the other.     

Developmental coordination disorder and internalizing problems in children: The environmental stress hypothesis elaborated

There is a growing literature connecting poor motor coordination to physical and mental health outcomes in children and adolescents. These studies suggest that children with disorders such as developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are at greater risk for depression and anxiety, as well as obesity, and poor physical fitness. With regard to internalizing problems (symptoms of depression and anxiety), there is also evidence to suggest that the environment may play an important role in the etiology of psychological distress in this population. Cairney, Veldhuizen, & Szatmari, 2010 used the phrase “environmental stress hypothesis” to highlight the role that negative exposure to personal and interpersonal stressors might play in accounting for higher rates of internalizing symptoms in children with DCD. In this paper, we elaborate further on this basic premise, offering a model linking DCD to internalizing problems based on Pearlin’s stress process framework. In addition to stressors (risk) and protective factors, we incorporate both physical activity and obesity into our stress model. Next, we review the existing literature to see if there is evidence supporting specific components (pathways) of the model. In doing so, areas in need of further research are identified. Implications for intervention are also provided.     

Long-term memory in adulthood: An examination of the development of storage and retrieval processes at acquisition and retention

Although it is generally acknowledged that decrements in long-term memory play an important role in the decline of everyday cognitive functioning in adulthood, problems have arisen in localizing the source of these memory deficits. In this article we address three of the methodological and measurement issues that have led to difficulties in interpreting research on adulthood developmental differences in acquisition and long-term retention. Specifically, these issues are stages-of-learning confounds, failures to separate storage and retrieval processes, and failures to separate forgetting from other factors that influence long-term retention tests. A general framework is presented in which each of these problems is dealt with. This model is subsequently applied to an experiment that examined the acquisition and long-term retention of pictures and words in associative memory in both young and old adults. The major findings were that (a) the picture-word manipulation had asymmetrical effects on acquisition and retention, (b) these asymmetries were different for the young and old adults, and (c) the locus (storage/retrieval) of age differences was different at acquisition than at retention. These results strongly suggest that the rules governing acquisition and forgetting are different, not only within age groups, but also across developmental levels in adulthood. More importantly, because the locus of developmental differences was different for acquisition and forgetting, it may be that different mechanisms underly the processing deficits experienced by the elderly when acquiring information than when trying to retain that information over extended periods of time.     

The relationship between moral decision making and patterns of consolidation and transition in moral judgment development

Following models that describe intraindividual correlates of stage transitions (S. S. Snyder & D. H. Feldman, 1984), this study assessed the relation between a measure of consolidation and transition in moral judgment development and the utility of moral concepts in sociomoral decision making. The study extends previous research in suggesting that individuals use moral concepts differently as they cycle through periods of consolidation and transition. With multiple cross-sectional and longitudinal samples, findings indicate that participants' reliance on a Kohlbergian moral framework as measured by the Defining Issues Test is highest during periods of consolidation and lowest during transitions. As participants move into periods of consolidation, the utility of moral stage information increases. Thus, this study indicates that the consolidation and transition model can be used to help identify individuals who are more or less likely to use Kohlberg's moral stages in their moral decision making.     

Understanding the role of social support in trajectories of mental health symptoms for immigrant adolescents

This longitudinal study of 286, urban residing, first- and second-generation immigrant adolescents examined the degree to which acculturative stress is related to the developmental trajectories of mental health problems and the role of social support in this process. Participants were recruited when they entered 10th grade and two additional waves of data were gathered at 12-month intervals. Using individual growth curve modeling, the results show significant decline in internalizing mental health problems during the high school years. At the same time, greater exposure to acculturative stress predicted significantly more withdrawn/depressed, somatic, and anxious/depressed symptoms. Additionally, social support moderated the relation between acculturative stress and anxious/depressed symptoms. Gender and generation status differences were found only at baseline (10th grade).     

How Morality Can Be Absent from Moral Arguments

What is a moral argument? A straightforward answer is that a moral argument is an argument dealing with moral issues, such as the permissibility of killing in certain circumstances. I call this the thin sense of ‘moral argument’. Arguments that we find in normative and applied ethics are almost invariably moral in this sense. However, they often fail to be moral in other respects. In this article, I discuss four ways in which morality can be absent from moral arguments in the thin sense. If these arguments suffer from an absence of morality in at least one of these ways, they are not moral arguments in what I will call the thick sense of ‘moral argument’. Because only moral arguments in the thick sense could possibly qualify as proper responses to moral problems, the absence of morality in thin arguments means that these arguments will fail to give us a reason to do whatever they claim that we ought to do, even if we see no independent reason to question the truth of the premises or the logical validity of the argument.     

DUTIES OF JUSTICE TO CITIZENS WITH COGNITIVE DISABILITIES

Abstract: Many social practices treat citizens with cognitive disabilities differently from their nondisabled peers. Does John Rawls's theory of justice imply that we have different duties of justice to citizens whenever they are labeled with cognitive disabilities? Some theorists have claimed that the needs of the cognitively disabled do not raise issues of justice for Rawls. I claim that it is premature to reject Rawlsian contractualism. Rawlsians should regard all citizens as moral persons provided they have the potential for developing the two moral powers. I claim that every citizen requires specific Enabling Conditions to develop and exercise the two moral powers. Structuring basic social institutions to deny some citizens the Enabling Conditions is unjust because it blocks their developmental pathways toward becoming fully cooperating members of society. Hence, we have a duty of justice to provide citizens labeled with cognitive disabilities with the Enabling Conditions they require until they become fully cooperating members of society.     

Developmental changes in the responses of preterm infants to a painful stressor

The purpose of this investigation was to examine longitudinally gestational age and developmental differences in preterm infants' self-regulatory abilities in response to a painful stressor, as well as associations between behavioral and cardiovascular responses. Participants included 49 healthy premature infants. Behavioral and cardiovascular responses to a heel stick blood draw were compared between infants of 28-31 and 32-34 weeks' gestation age at birth. Both gestational age groups displayed behavioral and cardiovascular indications of stress in response to the blood draw. However, both shortly after birth and several weeks later, infants born at younger gestational ages (28-31 weeks) were more physiologically reactive. Evidence that the behavioral stress responses of 28-31 weeks' gestation age group preterm infants do not reflect their physiological responses suggests that evaluation of preterm infants' experiences and risk require assessments of both physiology and behavior. The greater stress vulnerability of the 28-31 weeks' gestation group relative to the 32-34 weeks' gestation group and the implications of this for subsequent development are discussed.     

Converging Theory and Practice: example selection in moral philosophy

ABSTRACT There is a growing trend in moral philosophy that reflects a return to a more ancient perspective of the subject matter wherein moral theory and moral practice are thought to converge. Like their Greek and Hellenistic predecessors, contemporary moral philosophers are again analysing virtues and character traits, drawing normative conclusions at the end of arguments, and testing their theories against examples from common life. Unfortunately, this literature is still cluttered with abstract, general, unlikely, and cleverly-constructed examples that are more apt to draw both reader and author away from the various moral issues under consideration. This paper argues that the selection of examples drawn from literature, history and common-life experiences offers the following advantages: (1) such examples better serve the purpose of illustration; (2) they function as projects for moral inquiry; (3) they better connect both reader and author to the moral issues being discussed; (4) they help prevent the dichotomisation of moral philosophy into meta-ethics and applied ethics; and (5) they help make it possible again for moral philosophy to have the relevance and importance it once enjoyed in previous periods of history. Selection criteria are outlined, and examples are provided that satisfy them.     

Self-esteem reconsidered: unstable self-esteem outperforms level of self-esteem as vulnerability marker for depression

Previous studies have built up evidence that an unstable self-esteem is associated with vulnerability to depression and that it outperforms level of self-esteem as a predictor for symptoms of depression. However, most of these studies have used student samples exclusively to investigate the role of self-esteem instability in depression vulnerability. Our present study used samples of currently depressed inpatients, formerly depressed individuals, and never-depressed controls to investigate the relationship between self-esteem instability and depression. In addition, we examined the predictive validity of self-esteem instability in predicting future depressive symptoms. The results indicate that self-esteem instability is associated with depression and vulnerability to depression. Furthermore, self-esteem instability interacted with perceived stress variability and depressed mood variability in predicting future depressive symptomatology at six months follow-up. These results are in line with the diathesis-stress model and support the hypothesis that self-esteem instability might be more important than level of self-esteem in predicting vulnerability to depression.     

Teaching research ethics: Can web-based instruction satisfy appropriate pedagogical objectives?

Ethical tasks faced by researchers in science and engineering as they engage in research include recognition of moral problems in their practice, finding solutions to those moral problems, judging moral actions and engaging in preventive ethics. Given these issues, appropriate pedagogical objectives for research ethics education include (1) teaching researchers to recognize moral issues in their research, (2) teaching researchers to solve practical moral problems in their research from the perspective of the moral agent, (3) teaching researchers how to make moral judgments about actions, and (4) learning to engage in preventive ethics. If web-based research ethics education is intended to be adequate and sufficient for research ethics education, then it must meet those objectives. However there are reasons to be skeptical that it can.